Sarah Palin’s decision to step down as governor of Alaska has led to considerable speculation on what would otherwise be a very slow news day. Is it political suicide to quit midterm, both due to emphasizing her lack of experience and showing a lack of dedication to finishing the term she was elected to? Is it a political move which will turn out to her advantage as she is free to campaign for other Republicans and establish her as a party leader? Or is this a forced move prior to an upcoming scandal?
Nobody really knows her real reasons, if this will hurt or help her in the long run, or if this is motivated by an upcoming scandal. Writing in The Daily Beast (via Think Progress) Max Blumenthal speculates that the resignation was caused by an embezzlement scandal:
Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state.
SBS has close ties to the Palins. The company has not only sponsored Todd Palin’s snowmobile team, according to the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett, it hired Sarah Palin to do a statewide television commercial in 2004.
Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few “buddies,” according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.
Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.
Will we ever get back to decent values such as understanding, compassion,and not always judging our fellow man. I believe she came to her decision thru prayer. Best not to underestimate God!
God telling her to resign is certainly the type of pseudo-explanation which I would expect Palin’s supporters to believe in.
Marilyn: I’m not trying to be rude but are you for real?
The house embezzlement thing has been floating around for a while, my bet is that it is something even bigger. In that ‘press conference’ she was more panicked and incoherent than is even usual for her. Stank of fear.
Leslie, Palin supporters are entirely real. Even level-headed, intelligent, sensible fiscal conservatives without any deep commitment to Christian right lunacies can go crazy on the ‘Palin is a persecuted victim of misogynists’ tack. ‘Tammy Bruce Republicans’ and a handful of liberal Democrat Clintonistas are extremely likely to feel this way as well. It’s rather disturbing.
I consider Jenn Q Public to be one of the most sensible and level-headed Republican bloggers on the web, and she is solidly in the right camp on issues like gay marriage and the right to choose, but she somehow buys into the crazy Rovian rhetoric about ‘nasty, fascist liberals’ despite disagreeing substantively with Palin and other fundamentalist conservatives on social issues.
People feel very strongly about Sarah Palin, on both sides of the divide, just as people felt very strongly about Bill Clinton on both sides of the divide. Many hard-core Clintonistas of the 1990s were in equal denial about the sex-life and the casual relationship with the truth in media relations, just as hardcore Palin fans are in denial about ethics questions and frightening dogmatic views on church and state.
The prevailing feeling in politics these days appears to be that ANY false charges somehow make ALL charges false, and there is a shocking disregard for critical thinking.
“Marilyn: I’m not trying to be rude but are you for real?”
Maybe she means that with SP quitting, NOW we can “get back to decent values such as understanding, compassion,and not always judging our fellow man”
since obviously those traits are not ones that Palin has ever given evidence of having..
otherwise.. it must be a joke.. lol
Eclectic Radial said “Palin supporters are entirely real. Even level-headed, intelligent, sensible fiscal conservatives without any deep commitment to Christian right lunacies . . .”
I just haven’t met or observed any of that type. In fact I focused on this very thing, Palin and her followers: one woman’s retrospective on one of my blog posts. I stopped hanging out at a local yarn store and my favorite waterin’ hole because of this. My relationship with many in my family has definately cooled because of this. And I sure haven’t seen or heard any of this from representatives of the select few.
nomoreGOP: Hopefully you are right and I’m wrong. If so, I apologize to Marilyn. Like I’ve so often said, you can’t read body language, hear tone of voice or see facial
expressions on the Net. And I’d really hate to see a “videos only” blog.
Leslie:
Unfortunately, I think you are right on this one.. Which really is a scary thought.. After reading your blog, I can tell you that I agree 1000% on your thoughts on all things Palin… Chosen and Willing Ignorance is a sad, sad thing.